• Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Right, this “not a real Christian” bullshit that Christians use to brush away the hateful people and teachings within your religion.

    Own up to these people, they’re your fellow Christians no matter how much you claim they aren’t. Own them and fix them, instead of sweeping them under the rug and claiming they aren’t real

    • rayyy@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      If they have to tell you they are Christian, they are not. If they have to tell you they are honest, they are not. If the have to tell you that they don’t watch porn, they do.

      • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Ok but also if you think that being a good person is correlated with being a Christian that’s also a problem. I’m a heretical apostate to Christianity but I act more in line with the teachings of Jesus than many Christians. Does that make me more Christian than them despite me having different gods? Or is it just that they’re bad at following the rules of their religion? I think it’s the latter. I think most if not all religious traditions place some weight on and expectations around being halfway decent, and Mike Johnson is a shitty person. He’d be shitty in any religion.

        I see a lot of Christians say that they should “show you’re a Christian instead of saying it”, but like how about just be a good person and I won’t infer your religion off of it

        • daltotron@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Or is it just that they’re bad at following the rules of their religion?

          The problem is that this basically can’t be the case, because all the rules are made up pretty much ad hoc and everyone can just justify whatever interpretation cause the holy spirit told them that was the right way, and they’re more in touch with god than you, yadda yadda.

          Definitions of who is and isn’t a shitty person is also kind of up in the air. This guy definitely is, but the christian who’s been brainwashed into believing that gay people are sinners as a matter of the rules of the universe by their god? I dunno. Plot twist, though, this guy and the brainwashed guy are the same guy. YMMV depending on whether or not you believe it’s intent, or action, that specifically causes harm, though, cause lots of people can walk around thinking that and never attain positions of power like what this guy has, even if they might end up performing the same given the role.

          I’m not given to thinking that all of christianity is bad or whatever, that would be throwing out the baby with the bathwater. But I’ve been raised in the religion, I’ve seen a lot of it, and there’s a much, much higher proportion of what people would call “fake” christians, in proportion to the ones that are nice and accepting and whatever. I dunno if they’re fake, at that point, just by sheer numbers, just by the fact that that’s what exists in the common consciousness as a “christian” way more than some nice dude.

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      I have mixed feelings about that instinct. Calling out and distancing from the religious hypocrites is a Jesus thing to do. But also when non Christians fear Christians they need to understand why we feel that way and many Christians don’t seem to understand that I’m even scared of Christianity at it’s best.

      So in short, do they just disavow or do they adamantly oppose as well? If they do the latter I’m happy they do the former, but I’ve seen far too many think the former is enough before they start shit talking atheists

    • SCB@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Right, this “not a real Christian” bullshit that Christians use to brush away the hateful people and teachings within your religion.

      You literally are acting against the teachings of Christ if you act like Johnson, which is the entire point of the op-ed you didn’t read.

      He isn’t “sweeping them under the rug” but rather calling them out as heretics, and calling out Christians to do the same.

      Before writing a big emotional response like this, I’d recommend reading the linked content.

    • masquenox@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      and fix them

      Maybe you should set an example and “fix” all the edgelord atheists.

      • Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Atheism isn’t a religion, it’s the absence of it. I can’t fix them because they’re not a group or club. Also, they don’t follow a book with a god that tells them to “take the dust out of your own eye first”, Christians do. So maybe follow your own teachings, instead of trying to impose them on others

        • SCB@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Atheism isn’t a religion, but it’s a belief system, and edgy atheists who pick fights for no reason are indeed annoying.

          • Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            I’m not an “edgy atheist” if anything I’m an anti theist, who used to be an evangelical Christian, until I got out of that cult after two decades of sexual abuse, brain washing and hate filled teachings. So now that I’m out, naturally not only do I not believe in a god, but I straight up despise religion and the damage it does to people

            • SCB@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              I’m not an “edgy atheist” if anything I’m an anti theist,

              I straight up despise religion and the damage it does to people

              Lol how do you even write this with a straight face.

        • oatscoop@midwest.social
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          10 months ago

          And “Christian” isn’t a homogeneous group – it’s also something anyone can claim membership of. By itself the label doesn’t tell you if someone is a good person or an asshole.

          Apart from “this person believes Jesus Christ was real” it doesn’t tell you anything.

          • Zoolander@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            It doesn’t have to be homogenous. The belief that you mention, though, is based on someone from a book without evidence who is supposedly quoted as giving the rules that those people are to live by. You can’t claim to be part of that group and also claim that you don’t believe the person who is the figurehead of the belief. That idea has to be shared in order to claim membership in that group.

        • masquenox@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Atheism isn’t a religion,

          Good thing you told us - it wouldn’t be obvious otherwise.

          not a group or club.

          The whiny ones sure do seem like they desperately want their own club.

          “take the dust out of your own eye first”

          Oh, I don’t know… dust in the eye can be a pretty uncomfortable thing.

          your own teachings,

          They’re not mine.

          • daltotron@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            You have a selection bias going on, there. You will tend to notice the “whiny ones” more often, because they are whiny. This is the same reason as to why, to you, it’s not obvious that it’s not a religion.

            You’re also going line by line on the comment which I should tell you is omega cringe and completely misses the main thesis of the comment in exchange for being kind of smarmy and quippy, which I would say is very unchristlike. Their point is that self-identifying as christian is a positive group, it’s a group you choose to identify as. Being an atheist is something you are because you don’t identify as belonging to any religion, it’s a negative group. Atheists are the non-black non-ravens, they constitute literally everything that isn’t. Which one do you think would be the more coherent, singular group, there? It’s like if you had a classification of all chairs being, things with four legs that you sit on. Atheists, in this metaphor, would be everything that isn’t a chair. Even with that shitty definition of a chair, that includes horses, chairs will still be a more coherent and singular group, than “everything that isn’t a chair”. That’s their point.

          • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            Yeah you sound worse than annoying atheists, like, a lot worse. If you can’t understand why they’d feel alienated by a society that loudly declares itself Christian then you need to get out of your bubble.

            My beef with annoying atheists is how much many of treat it like a sect of Christianity instead of dechristianizing, but they’re typically new to their belief system, that’s ok, converts and apostates alike tend to be annoying for a while.

            • masquenox@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              If you can’t understand why they’d feel alienated by a society that loudly declares itself Christian

              Oh, the poor things… at least they still have white supremacism, nationalism and capitalism to cling onto, eh?

              but they’re typically new to their belief system

              Nice of you to admit that they haven’t really managed to escape the whole “belief system” thing… in spite of their claims.

              • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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                10 months ago

                Anyway next time you wonder why people don’t associate religion with morality and why many who seek religion write off Christianity check the mirror

                • masquenox@lemmy.world
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                  10 months ago

                  Anyway next time you wonder why people don’t associate religion with morality

                  People are supposed to associate religion with morality? What a Christian thing to say.